Mekong awards two $10,000 University Scholarships to local students

19 Feb 2016

Mekong&comma; a community club within the Mounties Group&comma; has announced the winners of its inaugural Mekong Mounties University Scholarship&period; The two recipients&comma; Julia Nguyen and Kylie Huynh&comma; who are both locals to the Cabramatta area&comma; were presented with scholarships of &dollar;10&comma;000 each&period;

Mekong Mounties originally planned to offer a single scholarship but&comma; as both recipients’applications were of such high calibre&comma; the club generously decided to award two scholarships of &dollar;10&comma;000&period;

The program&comma; which launched in 2015&comma; aims to assist and encourage students from low socioeconomic and disadvantaged backgrounds to continue with their higher education&period;

Mounties Group President&comma; Kevin Ingram&comma; said&colon; "We were excited to announce the recipients of the Mekong Mounties University Scholarship and look forward to helping our dedicated local students achieve their educational goals in the future&period;

"We would like to thank all entrants for their efforts and are pleased we were able to award two scholarships&comma; as we were unable to decide between these very deserving and hard-working students&comma;" he said&period;

Both recipients received exceptional results in the Higher School Certificate in 2015 and are seeking to further their education at the University of Sydney this year&period;

Julia Nguyen&comma; who was awarded DUX at St John's Park High School&comma; will be undertaking a double degree &lpar;Commerce and Arts&rpar; with her goal to become a Business Management Consultant&period; Julia has withstood personal family hardship and recognises the value of resilience and determination&period;Kylie Huynh&comma; who attended Cabramatta High School in 2015&comma; seeks to complete a Bachelor of Speech Pathology&period; Kylie recently dedicated her time to organising fundraising for an orphanage in Nepal after the 2015 earthquake&period;

Both recipients were presented with their scholarships at the 2016 TET Festival&comma; Saturday&comma; 6 February 2016&period;

The Scholarships were open to students of Vietnamese heritage&comma; who finished high school in 2015 and were seeking to commence full-time undergraduate studies in 2016&period; The applicants were assessed on their academic merit&semi; achievements outside of school&comma; including community involvement&semi; financial hardship&semi; and personal barriers that had been overcome&period;